to help her, it became her duty to seek employment for her own maintenance. It was with bitterness of heart that she answered the advertisement of Marie Earnestine for waiting maid ten years before. Then she had asked herself, as she had mounted the marble steps and pulled the silver knob, why this girl, who was no better than she, could, in addition to all her other blessings in life, afford to keep a maid to wait upon her, while she, through no sin of her own, must forego an education. Her fists were clenched tightly and her spirit burned with hot indignation as she thought of the injustice. As she stood awaiting an answer to her summons, she began to look beyond the home to find where the oppression began and who to blame in this land of free people. As she reached out in spirit to find who should be her natural protectors, she questioned: "Am I not an American? And is not Uncle Sam rich and able to shield, educate and protect the little ones of his country? Am I to blame because my father was a drunkard and broke my sainted mother's heart? Was it not rum that robbed me of home and protection, while Uncle Sam has gone into partnership with the liquor traffic? Surely, if he had prohibited the traffic, which is a curse to our country, I would be happy in school to-day "

She stamped her foot with a fierce spirit of resentment, her eyes were flashing with excitement, when the door opened and she was ushered into the presence of the sickly looking and inanimate little girl, Marie Earnestine, who was then but a child of thirteen.

Answering the many questions that were propounded to her by the maiden aunt of Marie (for her mother had been for some years deceased), she seemed to be a satisfactory applicant.

Besides, Marie had said: "You see, auntie, she is a

brunette, while I am a blonde, and as we must naturally be together a great deal, her beauty will only help to enhance my own, and I shall not have to suffer the mortification that my poor friend Bella Downs does because her companion is of her same type of beauty, only so much handsomer than herself that it quite takes away all her own charms."

This was a new thought to Ruth, for, being trained as she had been by a Christian mother, she had never once thought whether she were beautiful or not; and to hear this child, even younger in years than herself, expressing such vain sentiments, gave birth in her heart to a feeling akin to contempt. But she thought of her condition, and knowing that she must work to earn her bread, she at once accepted the situation and engaged to come on the morrow. Be it said to the credit of Ruth Mansfield, she had not once paused to think that there could be any degradation in labor; and in accepting this situation as waiting maid to the daughter of a millionaire, she felt it most praiseworthy in herself to be able at this early period of her life to take such a charge.

It was the thought that she must forego an education because poverty's keenest edge had cut the support from beneath her feet that seasoned her cup with bitterness and sent her young soul out in quest of justice. It is very true that every reform that ever came to bless the world has come up and out from under some dark cloud of oppression.

It was a gloomy day on the morning of the creation, when the earth planet hung in darkness in the Heavens groaning under the weight of oppression of other Heavenly bodies. But God spoke and said: "Let there be light!" And behold, the bonds of oppression were burst asunder, the earth blazed forth transcendent in the glory

of Him who shines as "light of the world." It was a dark day when the children of Israel groaned in bitterness under the yoke of Egyptian bondage; but if that yoke had been less hard to wear, Israel would have remained content in Egypt. Out of that bondage came the redemption of God's people, born in the form of a Messiah. Out from under the rod Israel came forth in great power. Just so with all other reforms of the world.

It was a dark day when our Pilgrim Fathers, who couldn't find rest for the soles of their feet in the Old World and could not worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, sailed from their native land. But out of that day of darkness came America— a great and gifted nation, "the land of the free and the home of the brave"--the land where Labor shall yet be crowned and the laborer be free indeed.

It was a dark day when the chains of the African slave clanked at his heels; but out from under the lash of a cruel master, freemen have been born with hearts as true and tender as any child of God.

It is now a dark day for labor in America, smitten as it is, yet in God's own time the clouds will vanish and a great and noble people shall come forth bearing aloft the banner of triumph.

Just so now it was with Ruth. The Lord who has lea the nations of the earth, the Lord who has led in all reforms and created all reformers, knew the process of preparing a soul for the warfare that is now being waged between Labor and Capital.

This experience through which she was now called to pass was well and truly born of God, for had Ruth Mansfield remained through life in the same easy circumstances in which she was born, she could never have developed into the noble character which she was destined to be,

Thus, while her spirit was being chiseled and carved to fit her to become a master workman in the art of reform, she began to look away from self and realize that she was only one of the two hundred and fifty thousand working girls in America who were at this very time without a finished education. As she walked away that morning from the palatial residence of the Earnestines, which was to be her home for the next few years, she was forming new resolves and trying to set her thoughts in order that she might charge down upon the enemy and work for all mankind. Blessed girl, with Heavenborn desires! Who shall say that the angels of God did not smile upon her and lend promptings from above as she was about to enter a life's career?